Sunday, November 20, 2011

On November 18th, we had a lively discussion surrounding thecase study provided by fellow #BIWisdom "tribe" member, Peter Evans.

Leading up to Peter revealing his solution, there were quite a few excellent suggestions for how one might handle a similar situation. Those details can be found in Twitter by searching for the hashtag #BIWisdom. We also archive all of the weekly TweetChats on our member site BusinessIntelligenceInsider.

Below is Peter's solution:

"My solution was to develop a use case and present this to the CEO and the team and then introduce my solution to the CIO as a tactical solution – giving them the opportunity to develop a strategic solution.

Because of my approach I was allowed access to an instance of an RDBMS server and could therefore build a complete application based on a the desktop database tool available connecting to an RDBMS Backend which was used to connect to the banks BI semantic layer along with their operational systems data. Using desktop database tool I built a load and transform system with the ability to import data via the desktop to be added to the end results. Reporting was done via automation of the desktop spreadsheet application via the desktop database tool and auto population of a dashboards and individual and group reports which were then uploaded via code to a web server application and also emailed to the recipients as pdf files."

Our thanks to Peter for the case study and the great discussion that ensued!

Large International Retail Bank with Corporate BI System + Operational Systems + Externally generated survey reports and Operational Metrics. Having just been taken over by an external bank the Service Quality Team had a requirement to generate reports and a service quality scorecard to improve the business customer perception and profitability within the marketplace within a six month period.

You are hired specifically by the Business as opposed to the IT Department as there was already friction between the two teams due to past BI implantation failures – You are replacing a team of developers who had been brought in from the new banks IT Department for a three month period – and had left the unit with an Access database which had to be manually changed each month to the point of the non technical business users re-writing access queries and then running them to get each months reports – and the database was growing exponentially due to very poor data management.

Your problems are how to deal with an IT Team who thinks they are under threat not just from you but also the IT Department of the incoming bank. The Business unit employees were also very skeptical as they were made up of both analysts and managers and thought that if the process is automated they could lose their jobs, and finally since you are working for the business you have very little access to any IT infrastructure to make it all work.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Below is the "cover letter" from our latest (3rd) Mobile Business Intelligence Market Study, which "nets out" our observations and views on the subject: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When we started researching the Mobile Business Intelligence (BI) phenomenon over a year ago, we knew we were on to something important, but it wasn’t obvious where the journey would take us.

This findings document marks our third published report on the subject since mid 2010 and offers the clearest picture of progress to date. Having over a year’s worth of data to compare and contrast has been especially helpful in developing a higher fidelity; real-world perspective!

To be clear, we believe that we’re in the midst of a profound shift toward Mobile BI (and mobile computing). We believe this paradigm shift will affect everyone and have as much impact as the Internet did, over time.

This latest findings report shows strong evidence that Mobile BI is taking hold - broadly. Although current adoption, plans and perceptions may vary, this is a global phenomenon - across all geographies, industries, functions and organization sizes.

There are also more choices for organizations than there were in 2010. More and better mobile platform options have emerged – with an abundance of new tablets. And BI software suppliers have invested heavily, offering a much more complete menu of mobile options.

However, there are significant risks and challenges along the way. A proverbial “moving target” of hardware and software standards presents difficulties to both customers and suppliers alike. And, the risk of privacy and security breaches remains at the forefront of industry challenges.

Nevertheless, the Internet is an apt analogy. How do we work differently now than before the Internet “revolution”? What we take for granted: our ability to effortlessly find, create and share information and to readily collaborate with others – was impossibly difficult before it.

Likewise, what will be the impact of Mobile BI - with information and insight literally following us - wherever we are; whenever we need it? It will change the way that we work, our ability to respond more quickly and to align towards common purpose. This notion of pervasiveness has always been the mission of BI, which may now finally be realized with the catalyst of mobile computing.

So what should organizations do with this information? To quote Pasteur, “Luck favors the prepared”. In this spirit, we must all prepare for and embrace Mobile BI, or risk getting left behind.

We hope that this findings report – and our other research – will help guide the way and better increase your chances for success with Mobile Business Intelligence.